Battlefield Washington

Good morning. It is 8:55 a.m. on September 11th 2001 and I am getting ready to make my way to my office inside of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. I’ve been a Petty Officer here at the Pentagon for sometime now and I love my work in the military right here at our nation’s capital. I love my homeland and everyone in it and I love knowing that I’m doing my part in not only defending my country but other nations around the globe as well. As I walk inside I’m greeted by my fellow military personnel and they are just ready for the day as I am.

Now I’m making my way to the D-ring, that’s the area of the Pentagon I work from. As I head to my workspace I notice that there is a crowd of people standing around the desk of one of my colleagues looking at something on television. One of my colleagues approaches me as I get closer and asks “Sir, did you hear what happened in New York?” “No!” I responded with a tone of confusion. “Well sir, a plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.” This news sounded awful and unbelievable, but when I look at the television which is on CBS news on my cohorts desk, sure enough I can see the tragedy is real.

“Jesus! This is terrible.” One of my colleagues tells me. “Sir they’re saying it was a small plane that hit the building”, but as someone with a lot of knowledge in aviation I can tell that was no small plane that hit that building. Now I’m staring at the site of this incredible image and my mind is running racket wondering what could have went wrong with that plane that it would crash into that building. While I’m standing next to my cohorts watching this baffling image on CBS news an aircraft suddenly comes in view on the screen and before I can fully comprehend its appearance and ask what is it doing there, it crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

Everyone around me lets out a chorus of collective screams and gasps. “Oh my God!” “Oh my goodness!” “Jesus Christ!” and “Lord have mercy!” Fill the entire building, even from me. This is an attack, it’s a terrorist attack on our nation and it’s unfolding on live television right before our eyes. At first I am overwhelmed with anger. I can’t believe my homeland is under attack and then my heart aches for everyone in New York who is enduring this agony. My emotions don’t sit idle for long. We immediately get word that our joint chiefs and military commanders will be having a meeting here soon to discuss an offensive strategy on how to respond to this attack. Soon after we watch president George W. Bush address the nation about the attacks in New York from E. Booker elementary school in Sarasota, Florida.

For the next 20 minutes I myself and the rest of the military personnel are discussing the unfolding attacks in New York and what we think will happen and should happen in response. We also receive some uneasy news that the planes that crashed into the twin towers were hijacked and that there were more hijacked planes flying over the nation’s skies unaccounted for. This news really set me on edge because I had a alarming feeling that if there are more planes out there then they may be headed towards the capital. As I’m conversing with my colleagues about the ensuing attack in New York I can faintly hear the sound of a jet engine in the distance. I’m so entrenched in our conversation that I didn’t realize the sound was getting louder as if something was coming closer. At the second I became fully aware of the approaching sound a forceful bang impacted the building’s structure and knocked us over.

A massive vibration quaked through our ring as all personnel were knocked over and off balance while screaming. The entire office space and the surrounding corridors were trashed and the lights began to flicker on and off. As everyone started to come to and collect themselves some started speculating that a bomb had just been detonated or that we had just been impacted by a missle of some sort, but I knew what it was. “I think a bomb just went off” said one of our staff members. “It wasn’t a bomb!” I responded aloud. “It was a plane. They got us, the bastards have targeted the capital too, just like I knew they would.” My first instinct after that was we have to evacuate this building and salvage as many of the trapped and wounded as we can.

After everyone collected themselves I gave evacuation orders to every ear under the sound of my voice. “ I need all military personnel to gather everyone and head to the D-ring emergency exits right now, GO!”. No one asked a single question, they just complied. I then assembled several other petty officers to join me on a damage assessment to see where exactly the crash was and how we were gonna go about getting to the trapped and wounded. As they joined me they started giving me updates. “Sir we have confirmed eye witness reports that it was an aircraft that struck the building. It seems to have impacted the E-ring right next to us.” “Then that’s where we’re headed. Fire rescue and emergency services?” I asked. “They’re already converging on the scene, sir.” He replied. Running through a crowd of over a hundred evacuees we make our way to the exterior of the E-ring. Several other small groups of military personnel were behind us following suit.

When we make it to the E-ring exterior the damage we saw was unbelievable. It was reminiscent of a torpedo being shot at a military base. As fire and rescue services continued to converge on the scene military and staff started pouring out of the building by the hundreds. “Come on.” I say to all the personnel around me. “The fire is too thick we’re gonna have to slip through an opening in the C-ring to get inside to the trapped and wounded.” Everyone followed me to the C-ring where we did find several openings to where the damage was. Immediately catching our attention was small groups and individuals who were wounded that were already making their way out. As they were coming out our personnel assisted. The wounded staff then alerted us to the damage and how many more people were trapped and wounded behind them. “Sir!” one of the wounded began with exhaustion. “There are dozens of people trapped back there.” “Don’t worry!” I responded. “We’re gonna get to them, you guys just get outta here and get to safety now, go.”

Me and one of my fellow officers carefully head through one of the damaged doors which took us through the surrounding damage of the impact zone. The area was black and smoky, but also partially lightened because of the fire from the crash. 30 feet from where we were standing we started to hear moans and and people calling out asking “Is anybody there?” “Yes, we’re here!” I responded. “Where are you?” “On the ground by my desk, probably to your right”. We followed the sound of the man’s voice to our right and found him laying on the ground. He was burned and his charred shirt was sticking to him. We then picked him up so we could carry him safety. “What’s your situation sir?” I asked the man. “I’m burned and I think my leg is broken.” he replied. “Don’t worry we’re gonna get you out of here and to paramedics. Emergency services are already here.” I carried the man with one of his arms around my shoulder and my partner carried him with his other arm around his shoulder. As we carried him through the smoke and surrounding flames pieces of the building and roof were falling around us and we were moving as swiftly as we could trying to dodge the falling debris.

We finally make it back outside and delivered the wounded man to paramedics. With another petty officer and firefighter joining us in tow we raced back into the impact zone. As we return to the impact zone we carefully make our way inside further than we did our first time around. The further in we went, the more destruction and fatality did we discover. There were dead bodies and body parts all over the place. I knew some of these remains belonged to the passengers who were on the aircraft that struck the building because some of the remains were that of children. The heart wrenching anger of this discovery was enough to stop me in my tracks, but I kept going because there were lives that needed to be saved.

While assessing the area it was hard to determine which individuals were deceased and which ones were just unconscious. So we started shaking some of the bodies we came across to see if they were still alive. Most were no longer alive, but lying ten feet away from us a group of three people cried out “HELP!!!” in pain. Two were women and one man who was barely conscious. All three were burned and bleeding. The four us helped them up and began carrying them to safety. The firefighter with us carried the injured man on his back as the man was in the worst shape out of all three. Me and the other officers stood side by side with the women helping them walk the best they could. As we were making our way out fire balls started ricocheting off the damage structure. Small pockets of explosions also were going on around us as the structure continued falling apart. It was a struggle getting out and I could tell the building didn’t have long before the damaged structure caved in.

Once again we made it back outside the impact zone and delivered the injured trio to rescue workers. By then government and military officials had converged on the scene and briefed us on what was happening. They informed us that the White House and the Capitol were being evacuated. They informed us that President Bush was still aboard Air Force One and was being diverted to a safe location. They let us know that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was grounding air travel nation wide to weed out the good guys from the bad ones in the air. Just when it seemed like we were receiving news of security, bad news immediately followed. All officials on scene also informed us that they received news from the FAA and air traffic control that there was a fourth hijacked aircraft headed towards Washington and it was just 30 minutes away flying time. This news refueled my blood with urgency. We’re standing in the middle of a combat field and we’re at war.

We have to hurry up and get back in there and evacuate as many people as we possibly can. We are joined by other officers and rescue workers and then we joined forces with another group of military personnel and rescue workers and our big group quickly sped our way back into the impact zone. We are more adamant than we were before because we know that the fourth aircraft is on the way here and we probably only have mere minutes before it either crashes into one of the other surrounding government landmarks or crashes into the Pentagon again. With more people we are able to cover more ground in this unstable structure. Some of our group finds more wounded civilians and helps carry them out, but they will not leave without us behind them. Even the wounded victims insist on staying with us until everyone makes it out.

The rest of our group then encounters a jammed office door with a bunch of people on the other side of the door banging on it and calling out for help. Using as much of our body weight and equipment as we can, even some of the wounded with us gave assistance, we were able to break the door down. Nearly a dozen people came out of that office. Most were not wounded with the exception of a select few who had minor wounds and burns. They all helped assist in helping us carry out the wounded. As our big group of over two dozen people were getting ready to make our exit the damage structure in front of us began falling inward. The the ceilings fell in and the walls fell down blocking the way we had just come through. We all quickly dove inside a less damaged area right next to the impact zone we came in and sat still until we knew it was stabile.

The firefighter who was with us received a a call over his radio asking was our group okay. He informed fire and rescue on the outside about the destruction we had just escaped. “BE CAREFUL!!!” They screamed to him over the radio. “The damaged side of the building just caved in from top to bottom” he added. We couldn’t believe the bullet we had just dodged. “We also just received reports that the south tower of the World Trade Center just collapsed.” said the battalion chief over the radio. We all sat in a quiet shock which was broken by one of my fellow petty officers. “There’s more.” the battalion chief continued. “We just received word that an aircraft just crashed outside Pittsburg.” We just knew that meant we probably didn’t have long. “Come on, everyone. We have to get outta here quick before that fourth plane gets here.” I asserted.

Everyone in our group quickly rose to their feet and we all make a run for a corridor behind us that was further into the building but was less damaged. We all decided we were gonna make a run for it and then go out the first emergency exit we could find. As we’re running down the corridor some of us are carrying the wounded who were unable to walk and even some of the other wounded were helping carry them as well. As we neared the exit we happened to get a glimpse of the news that was playing on a television that was still working in an office in the less damaged area we were running through. One person in our group pointed at it and said “look! look!”. On the news we saw the north tower of the World Trade Center collapse.

At this horrible site we all continued sprinting toward the emergency exit door and kicked them open making it back outside. When we got outside all the wounded of our group were handed off to paramedics. There was also a big group of rescue workers trying to go back into the building but were stopped by firefighters who deemed the impact zone to dangerous to re-enter. There were now thousands of people scurrying in pandemonium outside of the Pentagon. A remarkable image that I will never get over was the site of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld helping deliver the wounded to paramedics.

As I stood there looking at the Pentagon in smoke, while reflecting on everything that happened today, I knew we were at war. My homeland was attacked and now it was time to stand up and bring those who are responsible to justice. One of my colleagues approached as I stood there. “What happens now sir?” he asked. “We fight!” I responded. “We stand together and we fight.”

~~Dedicated to everyone who fought and perished at the Pentagon on September 11th 2001 and everyone in our military who has fought for justice during the War on Terror.